


Toxic

by jukori



Series: Madness is the only sane response [4]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Death, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, light birdflash - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-17 07:46:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 5,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5860294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jukori/pseuds/jukori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a death-trap.You're sure about that? Yes, absolutely. What happened? Who will survive? You are aware that death-trap implies death right? Yah, think Batman is coming for them? Oh, I hope so! HAHAHA.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_You made your choice_ , the hoarse voice of the madman whispers over and over in his head.

  
He can not forget his crazy laugh. It's hunting him, it's burning him from the inside and it won't leave him alone.

Closing his eyes didn't help. It makes it even worse, if that is possible.

They told him to rest, but how could he? It is his fault. He was the leader. He should have known. He should have done something - anything. Now it's too late. And the voice in his head just won't stop.

_You made your choice._

The terrible laugh continued. It's sucking the last bit of sanity that’s left out of his brain.

Sitting in the safety of his pitch-black room Kaldur'ahm curls up with his knees pressed tightly against his chest. He didn't even notice when he slowly starts to rock back and forth, trying to soothe his tense nerves.

"It is my fault. _I made the choice._ "


	2. Chapter 2

It was a trap. Of course it was a trap and they all knew it. But weren't they heroes? Wasn't it their job to walk into traps, beat the bad boys and save the day?

So when the Young Justice team ran through the dark corridors of a secret laboratory somewhere in Gotham city they understood the risk. Well as far as a group of underage teenager was able to.

"Which way?" Kaldur asked the youngest member of the team as the group came to a halt.  
Robin took a short look on his holographic computer and shrugged his shoulders.

A sigh escaped Aqualad. Whatever, there weren't that many choices anyway.

"Split up!" he ordered. "Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy you go left. The rest comes with me."

The team nodded and the Atlantean watched his friends vanish into the opposite direction.

"Hurry up~," he heard an energetic KF shout from the distance. He could picture Wally running literally circles around the other boys. The thought brought a gentle smile to his face. Let’s keep your head in the game, he reminded himself, before he continued towards their target.

The mission was easy. At least it was supposed to be. Some genius scientists held hostage, three heavily armed gangster behind every corner, two already disarmed time bombs and one Clown. It shouldn't be a problem.

As they reached the end of the hallway Kaldur gave the signal. Artemis took an arrow out, ready to shoot and Megan started to form a telekinetic shield around them. Just in case.

"Go!"

Aqualad kicked the door in. With water blades already in his hands, he quickly scanned his surrounding.

Inside it looked more like a warehouse or a storeroom than part of a laboratory. Most likely not used for scientific purpose. The room was way bigger than he expected. Good, that would give them enough space to attack and doge if necessary. It was also filled with huge crates and barrels. Even better, they could use those as cover.

Across the door were two henchmen busy carrying one of the bigger boxes, three others were just standing around with their machine guns, apparently doing nothing in particular. The last one was about to put some kind of test tube into a metal briefcase. So far nothing out of the usual. Thought, he didn't knew if their enemy's were surprised to see them or not, cause each face was plastered with a creepy clown mask. Brrr, Gotham’s rogues definitely gave him the shivers.

The air crackled with the tension of the upcoming battle and deadly silence started to spread as the thugs paused in their movements. Kaldur went forward ready to use the small advance of surprise that was still left.

***PFFFART***

Another silence filled the room. The awkward one.

The young Atlantean thanked mentally all of his gods that neither KF nor Robin were here. He would never hear the end of it. And in a corner of his head he thought, that this was really lame.

Aqualad lifted his foot from the whoopee cushion, he stepped on a second ago, before he finally realized what was going on.

"Get down!" he yelled and pushed both girls to the ground.

***BOOM***

While the heat of the explosion washed over them the team leader tried to protect his friends as best as possible from the burning flames. He knew that Artemis couldn't handle such an attack directly and that the only weakness of a Martian was fire. Somewhere between these thoughts he managed to put up his water shield.

Once it was over a rough cough escaped from Artemis. Kaldur rolled to his side allowing the archer and the Martian girl more space to breathe.

"You gotta be kidding me," Artemis said in disbelieve as she slowly got back on her feeds, holding her still dizzy head.

**HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA**

That was the first time Aqualad heard his laugh. And from that point on every thing went wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

„My, my, guys, look who wants to play with good, old uncle J!" a cheerful voice echoed towards them, as the dark Clown separated himself from the shadows. He was followed by Harley Quinn on one side and his little pet-hyenas on the other - Not to mention the bunch of second rated henchmen behind him. 

“Shit,” Aqualad cursed as he realized that they were expecting them and now he stood face to face with the Joker, an experience Kaldur rather did not want to make twice. Not in this lifetime.

White face-paint smeared over the clown’s visage, framed by green oily hair. A M-16 hung causal over the purple suit he was wearing and the never fading smile on his face was painted over in red.

"Joker," he hissed.

"And here I was hoping Batman would personally show up to our little play-date. Oh, cruel fate. I thought he loved me the most~!"

The Joker dramatically threw his head back and placed the back of his hand on his forehead.

"Well, I really should ask him for the number of the agency he gets his sidekicks from. Hahaha."

"We are not sidekicks," Artemis proclaimed more out of reflex than anything else.

"Oh, of course not, dear, of course not,“ he purred. “I bet Robby's little come-along-together will still be fun, don't worry! So, how do I get a club card?"

When nobody responded his mood switched from weird to dangerous. His eyes turned cruel.

"Get them!"

The hyenas smashed forward, obeying blindly the command of their master. The battle was on.

Artemis shoot immediately some explosive arrows in their direction. The huge animals could not be taken lightly as they quickly dodged each one of them. She looked at the now angry growling beasts in front of her. Well at least that got their attention, the archer thought. 

"Leave them to me!" she called over the noise.

Kaldur raised a questioning eyebrow. 

A cocky smile graced her face, „What? I am more of a dog person."

Aqualad hadn't time to question, how this comment was in any way relevant, instead he decided to avoid a razor-sharp joker card that was flung at his head, while Megan stopped the other three in midair.

"Hihihi," Harley giggled like a kid that was caught with one hand in a cookie jar. "I wanna dissect the frog girl! Can I, can I?"

Without waiting for an answer she throw more joker cards at the Martians niece.

"Your welcome to try," Megan replied, blocking the attack as easily as before.

Joker lifted his gun to use the momentary distraction, Harley had created, ready to fire at the heroine, when Kaldur stormed between them and kicked the deadly weapon right out of his hands. The cold steel hit the ground with a loud clattering sound.

"Looks like you gonna play with me," Batman's arch-enemy scowled in surprise.

Instantly the hair on Kaldur's neck stood up while the madman's anger turned into annoyance.

"Didn't you have a dolphin to save?" the clown teased.

Okay, that was it! That was Kaldur's once-in-a-lifetime chance! With this answer he could give the Joker the ultimate verbal beating he deserved. It would crush him from the inside, destroy his eternal soul and would make sure the crazy clown would never forget the Atlantean again. Come on Kaldur'ahm, you can do it. Think of something smart! Snarky remark here we come. Think...anything...*think*think*think* Ok... just say something!

"Huh? No witty comeback on that? How disappointing."

"Whatever."

Damn it!

Kaldur lunged at him, but missed. The Joker was fast and had excellent reflexes, what made it very difficult to make his punches land. His erratic movements didn't help either. It was almost impossible to predict the clowns next action.

"So, what did they call you?" Joker asked while doing a back flip to doge one of Aqualads kicks.

"Oh, oh, no! Don't tell me! Let me guess~! Its Water Boy, isn't it?"

This time Aqualad’s fist found it's target.

"Fish Boy?"

Another blow into his stomach made the Joker stumbled back. Still smiling. Did he let him hit him on purpose? Was that a joke to him? He didn't understand.

"Gill Head?"

Kaldur aimed for his face. Hard.

"No, wait! The living flounder," Joker said, after spitting some blood out. He didn't seemed bothered by it at all. Was he enjoying the pain?

"How about Ariel?” he asked and started to hum the melody of ‘Under the Sea’. 

“Hahaha."

With a final strike, the Atlantean slammed his opponent into the next wall. The clowns head crashed against it and little bricks from the impacted covered his suit.

"It's Aqualad and it's over. You lost Joker," he said, pressing the psychopath with his hands against the solid stone. There was no chance to escape.

"Oh, but the fun just getting started. Should I tell you a secret Fish Boy?"

The clown prince of crime leaned closer. His eyes were filled with madness, nearly beyond the point of hypnotizing and his sweaty face almost touched Kaldur's. Gently he pressed his bloody lips against the young heroes ear. It made Kaldur shiver in disgust.

"You hit like a little girl," he whispered and started to giggle like...well, like crazy.

"You’re insane," the Atlantean stated the obvious, he just had to.

"Depends on how you look at it. I would call it super-sane Hahaha."

“That’s not even a wor-” but held his tong mid sentence. A new mental link was formed, as Kaldur connected this statement to the habit of creating weird new words, by a certain team member. The joker was indeed evil, corrupting the innocence mind of a young boy.

“I say you are no fun, but we already knew that.”

The trickster of doom slid his hand unnoticed into his right pocket, pulled smoothly a remote control out and pressed the big, round button on it, before Aqualad could even blink.

"Hehehehe."

Nothing happened.

"Huh?"

The Joker shook the innocent device angrily and pressed again, this time stronger.

"If you’re talking about the little bombs, we already defused them."

The serial killer pouted.

"Party popper," he grumbled, throwing the useless toy away.

Than he reached in his left pocket, pulling out another remote with an evil smiley-face in the middle.

"Nah~, Never mind! We laugh about that later," he said as he pressed it.


	4. Chapter 4

"What did you-" Aqualad was about to ask, when once again nothing seemed to happen.

"Nah, nah, where is the fun in telling you that?" giggled the clown evilly while the crazy smile still remained on his face.

Kaldur felt his anger rise. He didn't had much patient left for the psychopath and flexed his muscles. Under the increasing pressure the Joker squirmed.

„Easy here, big guy. We don't wanna do something you regret later, won't ya?" the clown said, forcing another laugh out, but choked pathetic when he couldn't get enough air trough his windpipe anymore.

Clam down Kaldur, you can't give into the homicidal maniac. He took a deep breath. Don't lose focus.

He must be careful not to underestimate the mad man. Batman had warned him that this would end most certainly deadly. Still the Joker was no match for him in a direct confrontation and wouldn't stand a chance in a hand to hand fight. There was no way the clown would get out of this. All he had to do was tie him up and wait for the police to bring him back to Arkham where he belonged.

During the Jokers useless attempt to wiggle himself out of Kaldur's hold, he noticed a white hand sneaking upwards. The Atlantean assumed to loose his grip...

He was wrong. Dead wrong.

Which was not just proven by the squeezing sound that came from the jokers stupid flower bouquet a second later, but also by the incredible pain he felt right now.

Damn it! Just damn it! It was so frustrating, the clown had pulled another trick out of his hat and he fell for it again like some rookie.

As soon as the liquid touched Aqualad he screamed in agony. His eyes burned like hell from the acid. Blinded by pain he tumbled backwards, hands crouched over his face trying to peel his bare skin with his fingernails.

„I would say it's just water, but well~ it isn't."

By the time Kaldur's world got black tables had turned jet again and not in a good way. Aqualad used all his strength to concentrate on his hearing, which was not easy with the Jokers laugh coming apparently from everywhere. But it wasn't as bad as Kaldur first feared, thanks to his dense atlantean skin. The problem were his sensitive eyes. It would take some time for them to recover. In the moment the only thing he could do was keep his enemy talking. That wouldn't be too hard. After all there was a well-known phenomenon which most of the villains had in common. They love to give long speeches about their diabolic plans instead of finishing their opponents off. He'd just hoped that this would count for the Joker too.

„You know what the problem is with you youngster?" Aqualad heard the raspy voice saying, still not able to figure out where the joker was hiding. „You taking everything waaaaaaay to serious! But sometimes you just have to step aside and go with the - "

"AQUALAD!" A scream echoed from the other side of the room.


	5. Chapter 5

It didn't looked that good for the team, Artemis thought while she shot her last arrows at the never ending row of thugs in front of her.

  
Sure she had managed to took out Joker's little pets and Megan handled Harley's card games without breaking into a sweat. It then did got a little harder once the cards started to explode, but the Martian girl was tough... well, till the point she realized she was surrounded by flames from the explosives. After that it all went down hill. Harley had an easy game and was about to give Megan the final blow with a freaking bazooka she pulled out of nowhere.

Where the hell did she got that thing anyway? eBay?

  
Of course Artemis stepped in to help her currently unconscious friend.

Now she was confronted with the crazy Harlequin and not to mention a howl bunch of henchman. Anytime she defeated one of them he would be replaced by two others. Was there a nest or something? As she reached over her shoulder to get another arrow she signed. 10 left and there was still no end in sight.

Things were definitely not going too well.

Suddenly Artemis heard a scream from Kaldur and looked up.

Mistake, big mistake.

A joker card rewarded her lack of attention by piercing its way into her shoulder.

„Never thought i gonna play that card on you? Huh, Missy?"

Heavily cursing she pulled the card out of her body. At least it didn't explode. A small comfort, really small. She should know better. When did she became that soft? Caring for her teammates right now was a luxury the archer could not afford. She had her own battle to fight.

Artemis didn't bother to reply and the harlequin didn't gave her a chance to rest while aiming her bazooka at her. In shock the archer watched the clown girl pulling with relish the trigger.

She had to made a decision: dodge and get the Martina girl take the blow or stay and die.

The newest member of the team made up her mind. There was no going back now, she would stick with her choice no matter what, Artemis thought as she watched the missile getting closer. Before it hit its target she closed her eyes.

When no detonation was coming she opened them again in suspicion and blinked. Artemis couldn't believe her luck!

"Missed..." She breathed out in surprise.

"Wasn't aiming at ya."


	6. Chapter 6

"Hurry up~~~" an energetic KF shouted from the distance. Robin rolled his eyes under his mask, but forced his pace up anyway.

  
"KF could you slow down a bit?"

"You ask for the impossible boy wonder" the speedster giggled mischievous, which earned him a slight punch in the rips. Still worth it.

"This is serious. We're dealing with the Joker here. And I bet this place is full of booby traps and stuff like that."

"Oh come on Rob, what's the worst thing that could happen?" Wally slung his arm casual over Dicks shoulder.

"You just did not went there, did ya?"

Another grin was all he got from the ginger before they reached a giant metallic door in front of them.

Robin started to do his thing and persuade the technology to bend to his will. Which was surprisingly harder than he thought.

"Can't you hack the security system any faster?" KF asked, while tapping impatient with his foot.

"I could, if you be able to be quiet for longer than 5 seconds." Came the smooth reply.

"Guys," Super Boy reminded them of his existence. "I don't think it’s necessary, the door is open."


	7. Chapter 7

Artemis snapped her head back.

  
"AQUALAD!" she screamed a desperate warning, but it was already too late. Helplessly she watched Kaldur going down.

"Aqualad!" the young girl tried again. No reaction.

This was bad. And worst part: It was her fault. How could she let this happened? If she only had paid more attention, if she were faster, if she had defeated the Harlequin first instead for going for the stupid Hyenas... Kaldur would still be alive- No! He was not dead! He just couldn't. He was a super hero. For gods sake, he had super strength! There was no way!

"Aqualad!"

An iron knot was beginning to form inside her stomach as she looked again at the lifeless figure of her friend and panic spread through her veins. Her hands started to tremble.

Keep it together Crock, this is not over. She looked down at her feet. Artemis couldn't chicken out yet, Megan still needed her help.

"Hihihihi. Did I hit him Puddin? Did I?"

The harlequin chirped as she jumped up and down in excitement. Her bells rang happily.

"Harley," the Joker growled, "How often have I told you not to interrupt me while I am talking?"

"Sorry Hon~."

Her shoulders sloped immediately down, but she didn't sound sorry at all. While Harley lifted her head up again her eyes met with Artemis. The satisfied smile on her face was all it took for the archer to snap back into action.

"You gonna pay for that bitch!" Artemis icy voice promised a painful future.


	8. Chapter 8

*BANG*

  
Funny how everything was supposed to start with a big bang and now it would be responsible for Kaldur's end. Oh irony. Thank goodness Aqualad hadn't time to think of how the world pulled sometimes the cruelest jokes on you. He was otherwise occupied.

With a brutal force Aqualad was ripped from his feet, and smashed into the ground. There was nothing but hot pain exploding in his back, burning it’s way past his skin. His entire body was on fire. Literally. Somewhere in the distant he heard a weird mix between laughing and yelling. Kaldur couldn't care less. All he knew was that it hurts.

The Atlantean couldn’t move, he barely managed to keep himself awake. Every breath felt like it was too much to take. At this time ‘of the game’ he was completely at the mercy of the psychopath, not that it mattered to him anyway. Again, it hurts, a lot.

"So what are we gonna do with you now water boy? You wanna see a magic trick?"

Kaldur continued the doomed fight against his clouded mind. Some small victories were already accomplished. For once, he got his vision back. How he found the strength of successfully opening his eyes, he had no idea. The way the colors melded together made everything seemed to be blurry and a little out-of-place, but Kaldur was almost sure, that the room spinning around him was not real... almost.

A pair of shiny black shoes appeared next to his face, slowly circling around his aching body, like vultures. Their rhythmical tapping held something strangely comforting. It reminded him of the steady sound of waves tossing against the beach.

  
"I wonder if you can breathe without that gills of yours...I always wanted to see a fish drowning. Hahaha. Now that would be funny! A fish who can't swim! HAHAHA"

Aqualads thoughts were floating back to his home. Not Mt. Justice. Kaldur'Ahms real home, the deep blue ocean. Fuzzy pictures of happy memories and a pair of cyan orbs bubbled up in his mind just to get washed away again. His grip on reality started to fade. How easy it would be to let himself drifted back into the welcoming darkness... just for a little while. But there was that nagging voice. It was annoying to tell the least and made his headache worse. All he wanted was for it to be silent.

"You see my old man always told me: Sonny, what doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger."

Sadly the voice didn't seem to care.

"Oh, don't worry! This will definitely kill ya!"

It was ridicules hard for Aqualad to figure out the meaning behind the spoken words. They just wouldn't make any sense, but there was a vaguely feeling of something dangerous looming ahead of him.

With time passing and the dizziness leaving, it was getting easier to put the words together, but he still felt like he was missing the point. And since when could shoes talk anyway? Kaldur saw them stop in their track and noticed a white hand coming out of space, grabbing something that looked like a big black stick. Weird...

"Hmmmm. Normally I would make this one as slow as possible, since you're a friend of the boy Blunder" Joker's eyes lightened up in excitement as soon as he mentioned Robin's name."But you know my schedule is a little crowded, so I just gonna put a bullet through your brain."

Suddenly said brain decided spontaneously to work again. All parts fell perfectly together. The jigsaw puzzle was solved and way to soon reality seemed painfully clear to him again. Oh man, did Kaldur wished he was still in denial.

  
His heartbeat sped up, when he realized what would happened next, now that the Joker was finished with his crazy rambling and holding the deadly weapon.

The clown was wandering in slow motion towards him, carrying the M-16 he had picked up from the dirty floor. He kicked Kaldur, not very slow-motion-like, into his stomach, so that the energy of the impact forced the young man on his back. Now Aqualad was facing the mad man, with a gun barrel pressed painfully against his forehead. Waiting for the inevitable.

"By, by, bir- fish boy."the semi-sweet voice of the Joker was filled with poison. Sickening pleasure was gleaming in his eyes.

  
Kaldur closed his own, not able to watch any longer.


	9. Chapter 9

The next thing he heard was the merciless clicking noise the gun made. Actually it sounded more like a Batarang hitting metal than Joker pulling the trigger.

Wait, what?, Aqualad’s eyes shot open.

And there he was, the big dark shadow of the Bat jumping at the Joker, driving the lunatic away from Kaldur, who was letting a breath out he didn't even know he was holding. And for the first time since the mission started the Atlantean felt the constant weight on his shoulders lifted.

"Batman!" Joker exclaimed surprisingly happy for a guy who was just about to get owned by one of the greatest heroes ever. He slowly turned his head in the direction of Kaldur’s savior and his smile widened in the most creepy way possible.

"I was wondering when you'd show up."

The clown licked his lips in a thrill of anticipation. Craving for the caped crusaders attention. And forgotten was Kaldur, as if he didn't exist in the first place, completely wiped out of Jokers mind. He had just eyes for the dark knight. Insane, maddening, merciless eyes of a psychopath, though, which would pierce through the soul of every normal human being. Kaldur knows, they were fixed on him just a minute ago.

Well Batman wasn't normal. He was Batman, that had to be enough.

The Bat glared for a brief moment over his shoulder. When their eyes met, Kaldur cringed inwardly. The obviously disappointed look he received from the older hero screamed plainly: I expected more from you. It was all it needed to let his self esteem shatter into 1000 tiny pieces. Shame over rolled him. Never before had he felt that his superhero name was so fitting. AquaLAD.

Kaldur couldn't stand it any longer and lowered his eyes. Was Robin feeling all the time like this?

Of course Joker noticed the small exchange between them, what brought the Atlantean back into his rather limited attention range.

"Told ya he liked me the best!" The villain winked suggestive in Kaldur's direction, like they were BFF's, who shared a diary since Kindergarten.

He followed in silence the duel of the dark knight and the clown. It was at least to tell fascinating. They moved on pure instincts mixed with adrenaline. Batman made it look so easy to beat the Joker. How comes Kaldur himself had so much trouble with Gotham's villains? First Clayface and know Joker.

In a weird dance fists were flying, punches and kicks exchanged. They knew every single move of each other, like an old, married couple. That thought alone was scary.

As soon as it begun, it was over, with the dark knight standing in all his glory and pride victorious over his enemy.

"Smuggling weaponry is not your style." The bogeyman of evil doers stated.

His arch-enemy doesn't seemed to mind the lake of an introduction. He most likely was used to it.

"Just making some small delivery's here and there. I am like Santa." The maniac proclaimed in a childish way.

There was a low growl escaping from Batman.

"Oh~ my poor, poor delusional knight. It's too late, it's too late! This round goes to me!" The clown suddenly repeated hysterical over and over, giggling in sickening pleasure.

The nerve wrecking sounds were barely to bear, even for the Bat, who pulled him abruptly up and interrupted the shrill noise.

"Talk!"

"Hihihih...Oh Batsy, aren't ya missing something? Something really important? I wonder if they still make the kiddy sized coffins on 5th avenue. You know, I think Hank would give me a discount. I am his favorite costumer after all! Hahahahaha."

"What did you do?"

"ME?" Joker snapped.

"I didn't do anything! It was Fish-boy here who deserves the honor!", he pointed gleeful at Kaldur.

"Wha- No!" Aqualad didn't understand what was going on.

"You're the leader of this little fight club aren't ya? You send them into their death, didn't you? You made your choice. And a bad one if you allow me the comment. I'll terribly gonna miss our little baby bird!" He whipped an imaginary tear from his eye.

"What do you mean?" Kadur'Ahm burst out.

Laughing filled again every corner of the room.

"It would be better if you had stood in your pond." Joker said unsmiling, poisoning the young man's mind with every word.

"At least then -"

A fist was colliding with Jokers temple, which left the room in a bitter-sweet silence.

The dark knight let the criminal fall carelessly to the ground and pure anger and rage were radiating from the Bat like light from the sun. He took his bat-shaped communicator out.

"Robin are you there?"

Batman was greeted with static.


	10. Chapter 10

The door opened with a smooth swoosh.

"Well, that was easy." KF stated.

"Too easy. This isn't right." Robin replied suspicious, rubbing unconscious circles over his upper arm. He had a bad feeling.

Nonetheless Dick decided that standing around wouldn't get them anywhere. After all they had a mission to do. So the Boy Wonder followed his friends carefully into the barley illuminated laboratory.

The light bulb flickered dangerous in the silent. It was giving all it has left to the young heroes, but slowly losing the fight against the dark shadows, cast by long shelves near the walls.

Rows of long tables, stood on a white flagged floor in the middle of the room. Each was equipped with a bunch of glassware, microscopes, pipette, chemicals and all the other stuff to do evil in a more scientific way...and there were the hostages, hidden in each corner. Bingo!

Of course there were hostages. At some point there were always hostages involved. Innocent people, who must be saved at all cost. Robin knew that very well. Every now and then he was one of them. Clearly being the adopted son of a billionaire had its downs sometimes, but all in all no biggie for him.

Jokers recent prisoners were still dressed in their lab coats, some already strained in red, others still white. He hated this part of the job. Coming to late felt never good.

They were nicely tied up and gagged with wrapping paper and he even went so far to put a matching ribbon on top of each head. The weird mix between feeling the joy of opening a present and dry blood gave Dick the creeps. And by the look of it Wally and Conner too.

"Rob, should we spli-"

KF turned around.

"Rob?"

The protegé of Batman had already disappeared, probably looking for something to hack into.

"Man, I hate it when he does that!" The speedster complained for the nth time.

Jeez, why was the acrobat always acting like a little brat, Wally wondered.

"Guess it means 'yes'." Superboy shrugged and moved in the direction of the hostages.

"What ever." Answered the red-head a little snippy, while taking of to the lab-tables.

He smiled in awww at the happily bubbling substances in the neatly organized test tubes. Chemistry was just his thing. Wally's glance wandered over the stuff build up before him.

He hardly noticed the rhythm of Robin's hands dancing over the keyboard of the main computer let alone the suddenly end of it.

"Guys..." Robins quiet voice came over.

The speedster ignored his friend. Instead he let his fingers wander over the edge of the table now and then picking the one or the other thing up, trying to figure out the purpose of behind all those.

"Guys!" Yet again the little bird echoed from the distance.

"Just a minute Rob... I just wanna check something" KF said absently, pushing the concerns of the younger boy off. He was way to fascinated with all the chemicals to listen properly.

In the meantime Superboy had freed the unconscious hostage one after another. It was a slow process and the clone of superman was a little disappointed about the lack of action.

"We have to get out of here!" He heard Robin shout from the other side of the room. The Boy Wonders heartbeat was unusual fast.

"I am almost finished." He called out to calm his friend a little bit, while he reached for the rob of the last hostage.

As soon as Conner removed the gag between the older man's mouth, his eyes snapped open.

"It's a trap" He breathed out, seized with panic.

It was than when Superboy noticed a laugh filled with madness coming from the heart of the building. The Joker? It was closely followed by a second strange noise.

RATARARARARARARARARARARA

Next to him a little wind-up monkey showed suddenly up, but instead of the usual cymbal he held two bottle of chemicals in his tiny handy.

Robin's eyes open wide in shock as he realized what was about to happen.

"Why does it always have to be monkeys." Superboy wondered as he watched the chemicals being smashed together.

.  
.  
.

"Robin are you there?" Kaldur remembered the Dark Knight calling out through the com-link.

"Answer me!"

The sound of Batman's voice made him shrink, never before ha he heard concern in it. But it was nothing compared to what he felt while listening to the static that followed.

"Batman." He instantly recognized Robins breathless voice and for a moment he allowed himself to relax.

"I am on my way." The Dark Knight replied brusquely.

"No!" Dick almost screamed.

Bruce waited patiently for his of his young portage to continue. He knew something was wrong.

"It's a trap!" Robin's voice nearly cracked. "Joker experimented with a toxin. He created a deadly virus. It's looks like it   
passed on through air. You can't come in here!"

"Who else is there?"

"Me, Superboy KF and the three Prof's."

"Stay put. Nobody is allowed to leave the room."

"Understood."

And after a second thought Bruce added.

"... don't worry. It's gonna be fine."

.  
.  
.

The League was contacted, the building evacuated and the first person was already dead.

That was four days ago and nothing, absolutely nothing was fine.


End file.
